Suspect identified in ‘terror-related’ England stabbing rampage

The man arrested in a deadly stabbing rampage in Reading, England, has been identified as a 25-year-old refugee from Libya who had just been released from prison — and police have declared the assault “terror-related.”

Khairi Saadallah, who came to the UK sometime after 2014, was arrested Saturday evening following an attack that left three dead.

Saadallah got on the radar of the British intelligence agency MI5 last year when it received information about his aspirations to travel abroad, possibly for terrorism, sources told the BBC.

He had bragged to friends that he had fought against the forces of former Libyan despot Moammar Khadafy as a child soldier and was chased out of the country, according to the Daily Mail.

Sources told The Sun that Saadallah — whose friends says is a convert to Christianity — was on medication for posttraumatic stress prior to his release from prison 16 days ago.

Despite his “history of violence and serious mental-health problems,” he was granted permission to stay in the UK in 2018.

The attacker approached a group of middle-aged men in a park and began knifing them, witnesses told The Sunday Telegraph.

“One lone person walked through, suddenly shouted some unintelligible words and went around a large group of around 10, trying to stab them,” Lawrence Wort, a personal trainer, told the newspaper.

“He stabbed three of them severely in the neck and under the arms, and then turned and started running towards me, and we turned and started running,” Wort said.

Amir Haydyoon, who witnessed the arrest, told Sky News that cops tackled the stabber.

“His eyes weren’t blinking. He was just staring, and there was a lot of blood in his hand,” Haydyoon said. “He wasn’t resisting or anything, even though there were four, five officers on top of him.”

In addition to the three who were killed, three others remain in critical condition at a hospital.

Thames Valley Police announced Sunday morning that the stabbing spree has been declared a terrorist act.

“Incidents of this nature are very rare, though I know that will be of little comfort to those involved and understand the concern that this incident will have caused amongst our local community,” Thames Valley Chief Constable John Campbell said.

With Post wires